Cisco Expands Small Business Product Portfolio

Small businesses are the backbone of society, representing millions of individual companies, and accounting for two-thirds of the global GDP.

Today, they are facing the dual challenges of keeping pace with a dynamic ecosystem, while continuing to provide enhanced customer experience and services.

With this in mind, Cisco is doubling down its focus on serving small businesses by offering customers and partners a simple, secure, and flexible portfolio with new solutions tailored to small businesses.

Collected under the Cisco Designed brand, the newly launched portfolio comprises new offerings that have been curated for small businesses, and address their networking, security, collaboration, cloud, and internet connectivity needs.

“Small businesses are the bedrock of India’s economy. In this dynamic macroeconomic environment, Cisco is committed to helping these businesses stay safe while ensuring business continuity by giving them access to top-notch, easy-to-use technology solutions. Our goal is to enable MSMEs in India to navigate these uncharted waters effectively by leveraging the power of technology,” said Panish PK, Managing Director, SMB, Cisco India and SAARC.

The Cisco Designed portfolio brings together the power of machine learning, AI, and cloud-driven solutions, and will help make buying, installation, and maintenance simple.

The simplified experience includes:

· New bundles and offers scaled for small business use cases: To further reduce cost and complexity while improving operational efficiency, bundled solutions that focus on key technology areas to support rapidly growing business use cases such as “Quick Office Setup”, “Secure Guest Wi-Fi”, “Seamless Remote Work Experience”, “Ransomware Protection” and “Safe Business Transactions” will be available.

· New app to eliminate complex and expensive networks: The new Cisco Business Wireless Mobile App provides a simple way for an individual or company to configure and manage networks in any location, all from the convenience of their smartphone. Available in the Apple App Store (iOS) or on Google Play (Android).

· Secure connectivity via Meraki: Bringing together the high-speed and high-density capabilities of Wi-Fi 6 to the cloud-managed Meraki portfolio of access points, the new Meraki Wi-Fi 6 Access points bring flexibility to growing businesses looking to digitize quickly. The technology will enable their network to scale to effectively manage more connected devices and richer content like video, as well as provide better performance as new applications emerge.

· Meraki Cloud-managed Smart Cameras: Not only can cameras help reduce inventory shrinkage and other risks, but they are also powered to deliver valuable business insights on areas ranging from foot traffic to identifying which displays are attracting attention to parking utilization. These new cameras include high-quality video, wireless connectivity, on-appliance storage, and built-in advanced analytics, eliminating costs involved in sending traffic to a data center. They offer a 360-degree view through a fisheye camera, and one unit can cover an entire premise efficiently for small businesses.

To further empower small businesses, Cisco is now responding to queries faster with the new Virtual Demand Center (VDC), which makes it more convenient for customers to engage with Cisco and our partners. For example, it is now easier to schedule an appointment or arrange a call back from an expert; the VDC connects customers to a partner in less than three hours, in 24 languages globally.

Cisco is also supporting partners who understand the small business market by significantly increasing its partner investments to scale and improve partner profitability. There has never been a better time for partners to double down on and support small businesses.

Availability:

All new Small Business Products will be rolled out and available in India from April 2020 onwards

ChannelDrive Bureau covers the latest developments in the space of ICT, technology, solutions and implementations and delivers content focused around solution providers, system integrators, distributors and technology partner community in India.
ChannelDrive Bureau is headed by Zia Askari. He can be reached at ziaaskari@channeldrive.in

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